An Arizona lawmaker has proposed a bill that would bite back against people who misrepresent their pets as trained service animals in public businesses.

Senate Bill 1040, proposed by Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, would allow courts to fine violators $250 for doing so. The bill died due to a lack of required committee hearings, but Kavanagh said he is continuing to work on the issue and hopes to revive it this session in another bill.

Organizations representing restaurants and grocers said they want a solution to stop owners from bringing all sorts of pets into their establishments. But disability advocates said current law is sufficient and warn the plan could have unintended consequences.

Relief from an 'epidemic'

Kavanagh said businesses are in need of relief from what he sees as an “epidemic.”

The epidemic, Kavanagh said, is fueled by access to fake service animal vests on the internet. He said in Arizona, it is also “legal to lie” and misrepresent a pet as a service animal.

Kavanagh acknowledged a deterrent proposal like this can only go so far and that catching people who violate the law would still be tricky.

“In most cases, the only way someone would get a summons would be if they were stupid enough to admit to a police officer that they had a fraudulent dog," Kavanagh said. "There are stupid criminals."

He said he doesn't believe his proposal would put any additional burden on individuals with disabilities using trained service animals.

“I’m not extending questioning," he said.

Current law

Current state laws only allow dogs and miniature horses to be service animals.(Photo: Cronkite News Service)

Current state law allows only dogs and miniature horses to be service animals, and only if they are trained and perform work directly related to an individual’s disability, such as assisting blind people with navigation, alerting deaf individuals to the presence of people, pulling a wheelchair, alerting owners to the presence of allergens or assisting someone during a seizure.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, businesses owners have the right to ask someone to leave the store if his or her pet is causing a disruption. They cannot ask about someone’s disability or request proof of training.

Dan Bogert, chief operating officer of the Arizona Restaurant Association, said he often hears from restaurant owners about customers who bring pets in purses or bags, buy fake service animal vests, or let their animal sit on chairs and do other things that violate health codes.

"It's quite easy to see the difference between a trained service animal and some of these other animals," Bogert said. "Trained service animals behave."

Business owners may ask someone to leave if the animal is being disruptive, but Bogert said more tools are needed to stop people from abusing laws meant to protect the disabled community.

"We want a safe and fair industry for people of all types of ability and we want to be able to service individuals with service animals," Bogert said. "But at the same time, we also have to protect patrons."

Concerns about unintended consequences

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, businesses owners have the right to ask someone to leave the store if his or her pet is causing a disruption.(Photo: Ron Hansen/The Republic)

April Reed, vice president of advocacy at Ability360, said such a change in law is not needed. Regardless of the intentions, she said, it could lead to "unintended consequences" for the disabled community.

She said actual service animals are well-trained, and so it is easy to recognize the difference between a service animal and a pet. She said Ability360 would rather see legislation that directly addresses that issue.

"Businesses already have the right to ask someone to leave if an animal is behaving badly," Reed said. "We are concerned that if the police were called, if there is a component here where people would need to go to court if they needed to defend themselves, that someone with a hidden disability would be defending themselves. In an open court, a judge can ask you any question about your disability."

Rather than a legislative fix, Reed said she would like to see businesses partner with the disability community to discuss the issue and further educate themselves on current law.

Rose Daly-Rooney, litigation director for the Arizona Center for Disability Law, said walking that line can be difficult. But she said the ADA provides clear guidelines to businesses.

A business can ask if the animal is a trained service animal and what tasks it performs. Daly-Rooney said based on the person's answers, that can identify the legitimacy of that animal and usually stop most issues.

Bills like SB 1040, she said, could subject people with disabilities to more questioning and is attempting to solve a problem that is not there.

"Everybody thinks there's this huge fake service animal problem going on out there," she said. "No one has actually documented this 'severe' problem."

Education efforts

Tim McCabe, president of the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance, said businesses are willing to do work with the disability community. He said bills like this could "be a start" for more policy down the road and serve as a deterrent.

McCabe said this is a problem that "continues to get worse," but that it is not a "critical" problem. Most of these pets and comfort animals don't pose a problem, McCabe said. But he added there are times when they cause an issue and are asked to leave.

McCabe said he wants some form of action taken to weed out those bad actors. He believes the bill, if it were to become law, would also help educate customers.

"A bill like this might help because people might think twice about bringing their animal into the store if they thought they could get a $250 fine," he said. "But we're not saying this bill would solve all of the problems."